Man who set submarine on fire to be sentenced Friday: Prosecutors seek almost 20 years

Tuesday

Mar 12, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By CLARKE CANFIELDAssociated Press

PORTLAND, Maine — Federal prosecutors are recommending that a young New Hampshire man be sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison for setting fire to a nuclear-powered submarine docked in Maine, causing an estimated $450 million in damage.

In a sentencing memorandum filed Friday in U.S. District Court, the U.S. attorney’s office recommended the top of the sentencing range allowed under an agreement in which Casey James Fury pleaded guilty to setting fire to the USS Miami.

The agreement limits Fury’s sentence to roughly 15 to 19 years. Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of 19 years and seven months, the maximum allowed under the agreement between Fury’s attorney and prosecutors.

Fury, 25, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in federal court in Portland.

It took more than 100 firefighters to save the Miami after the May 23 fire spread while the sub was in dry dock at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery.

The fire injured at least five people who responded to the blaze and could easily have been fatal, prosecutors wrote in the court document. The fire also cost the U.S. the use of a “vital national asset” for 18 months beyond the scheduled maintenance period, he said.

“Simply put, the nature and circumstances of the defendant’s conduct, and perhaps this factor alone, supports a sentence at the top of the advisory guideline range,” the document reads.

Fury’s federal public defender, David Beneman, said he planned to file his sentencing recommendation Monday.

Fury pleaded guilty in November to setting the fire inside the sub May 23, as well as a second fire outside on June 16.

Fury told Navy investigators he set the fires because he was feeling anxiety and wanted to go home, according to prosecutors. The second fire, on June 16, was set outside the submarine and was quickly doused with no damage.

The Navy plans to repair the Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine, but prosecutors said those efforts have been put on hold because of mandatory federal budget cuts.